The real Glaswegian working class voice in the independence debate read by thousands, the BBC and other related media, secured the first criminal conviction against one of the seven top cybernats outed by the Daily Mail

The big political mistake regarding the SNP is Westminster pandering to
them and treating them as some sort of quasi sovereign government, they aren’t
anything of the sort.

Holyrood is a devolved administration which was wrongly
hyped as being outside the British system of government. Westminster is to Holyrood what Holyrood is
to Glasgow City Council. You don’t see calls for sovereignty by Glasgow City
Council to become a sovereign state.

If Nicola Sturgeon wasn’t angry over Brexit, she could
easily find another scapegoat to bleet about as cause for a second independence
referendum for Scotland.
The vote to leave the EU in June 2016 was a British wide vote, but the SNP
attempt to define it the result in Scotland in terms of solely a
Scottish vote.

It wasn’t, people voted as individuals as they always do,
they weren’t voting as a nation, neither was England,
Wales or Northern Ireland.
Article 50 is going to be triggered because of the ‘will of people’, or if you
prefer ‘direct democracy’ or just plain ‘sovereignty’.

Paris, one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the
world is being reduced to little better than a slum ghetto. Have a look at the
pictures and ask yourself do you want this here? Why aren’t the politicians who
espouse multiculturalism getting their ‘selfies’ taken down in the gutter amidst
the stench and squalor?

The people of the United Kingdom including one
million Scots saw through the lies and made the right decision by voting for
Brexit. Some people voted purely on the issue of curtailment of immigration,
others such as myself voted for Brexit on the main issue, that issue was ‘sovereignty’.

If you believe the SNP argument that an independent Scotland can be sovereign in the EU, you have to
ask why they aren’t pushing for an independent Scotland
to be sovereign in the UK.
The reason is painfully obvious, Scotland cannot afford to pay its
way and still maintain the current levels of spending that it enjoys via the
Barnett formula. It is for this reason that the SNP will not embrace federalism
because it lets the cat out of the bag that a federal Scotland would
be forced to have a significantly reduced standard of living, services and high
tax.

And Nicola Sturgeon can’t sell that to Scotland and
its people.

Sturgeon is attacking Theresa May who she says is acting as
a 'high handed' PM, there is the usual issue of threats as demands a fresh
Scottish independence referendum.

As to Sturgeon’s claim of having a 'cast iron' mandate to
call one that is entirely bogus. The only thing her continual claims of mandate
do is damage economic certainty in Scotland as a place to invest.

Is there any substance to Nicola Sturgeon’s claims of the PM
is being 'intransigent'?

The answer is no, Nicola Sturgeon isn’t part of the UK team, which is why her knowledge of ‘events’
is limited, having failed to work with Westminster
as ‘partners’, they effectively excluded themselves as being active in the
process.

I don’t understand why fears are mounting in Downing Street because
although Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP can call for a second independence
referendum, they can only ask, they still need a Section 30 Order from Westminster to run it.

All Westminster
has to do is say No!

Saying No, doesn’t as some people say cause a constitutional
crisis, if Theresa May buys into the concept of neverendum, she will create a
rod for her own back. Are the Scottish Conservatives in a position to win the
vote and become the Scottish Government?

No!

Their success isn’t due to anything other than Labour voters
switching because of the weakness shown by Kezia Dugdale on the Union, this is hardly a basis for ‘declaration of future’
government don’t you agree? What Scotland lacks is a centre right
nationalist party which would change the political dynamic in Scottish
politics, that doesn’t exist at present.

Sturgeon at present is saying she had yet to make a decision
on whether to propose a new vote, saying she was still 'seeking compromise with
the UK government'. I can save her the trouble, the Westminster
government isn’t going to pander to her or her whims for the single market for Scotland, or a
deal on immigration or anything else that places UK National Security at risk.

When you are seen as a bunch of malcontents, don’t be
surprised if no one wants to work with you, Nicola Sturgeon has painted the SNP
into a corner.

Sturgeon isn’t going to be entertained while Brexit talks
are on-going and it may take two years for those talks to finish up and be
signed off, is Sturgeon going to be talking about indy for the next two years
like a demented parrot? If a campaign is run unofficially, it is doubtful it
will be sanctioned by the Electoral Commission and that raises all kinds of
questions, especially of public money is used.

Nicola Sturgeon is on to plums!

Theresa May should just ignore Nicola Sturgeon and let her
play her stupid silly games, and when things come crashing down around her ears
then act. The next Scottish independence campaign by Nicola Sturgeon is the
longest plea for political suicide in the world, and we should make sure that
we provide all the necessary help to allow her to cut her own political throat.
When her political corpse hits the ground with a rather large thud, watch the
panic set in at the SNP as they realise that there isn’t a leader in waiting
standing in the Wings!

Do you think post defeat, Nicola Sturgeon will be opening
corner shops and supermarkets, since it is doubtful big business will come a
calling offering jobs in Fortune 500 companies!

Kezia Dugdale is pinning her hopes for Scottish Labour's survival
on a plan to introduce federalism to Scotland. Apparently this new idea
is supposed to be her flagship plan. The Scottish Labour Party has according to
their members lost their core vote in Scotland;
there are no more Labour heartlands as Scotland remains in political flux.

So, the obvious question is this, does making a federal Scotland solve
Kezia Dugdale’s leadership problems?

I will be blunt no!

The reason the answer is no, is that the working class people
who left Labour for the SNP are gone, and they don’t seem to be wanting to come
back and also those who are Unionist voters who vote Labour will not impressed
by this move. If you remember the reason that Scottish Labour is the third
party of Holyrood was a failure to defend the Union.

If I was to sum up what Scottish Labour’s problem was, it
would be this, Scottish Labour tried to be all things to all people and ended
up being nothing to just about everyone. You can add to it, the arrogance of some
people who were elected who produced such a poor service dealing with
complaints, people asked why should we vote for someone who isn’t going to help
you. Scottish Labour traded off the legacy of political giants like Nye Bevan,
they used up the goodwill of the working class who reached a tipping point in
2014.

Since 2014, the public have fled from Scottish Labour, the
polling is at 14% for them, they have made themselves meaningful to no one,
they haven’t learned from past mistakes, they haven’t evolved; they are still
treating the public with contempt. The entire 2017 Scottish Labour Conference
can be summed up as £240 bribe on Child benefit.

According to Professor John Curtice, poll after poll, shows
Labour losing support right across the board.

Did you vote for federalism?

Are people in Scotland talking about federalism?

Is there a desire for federalism?

Kezia Dugdale’s flagship is another top down plan which has
no real support from anyone, and has the potential to lose her further support.
If you are really interested in federalism in the UK, then you go read about it at
the Constitutional Reform Group.

What does Kezia Dugdale use as a slogan, to save time, she
talks about a ‘new Act of Union’, leaving aside the legality of that isn’t
going to happen, it shows that Scottish Labour isn’t just bereft of ideas, it
also has to pinch other people’s slogans.

Brian Wilson, the former Labour minister isn’t
impressed by the new Flagship policy; he remarks that he shared people’s
“confusion” about what a new People’s Constitutional Convention looking at
federalism would achieve in practice. I suspect his confusion centres on that
Kezia Dugdale wants a People’s Constitutional Convention so people agree with
her policy.

Kezia Dugdale makes the fundamental mistake of thinking she
is there to decide want people want, she isn’t, she is supposed to be there to
respond and act on the wishes of the people. Wilson
right makes the point which I have previously blogged on regarding this issue, there
is no appetite for federalism in Scotland.

Could you imagine Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP signing up to
federalism, I can’t, federalism means living within your means, in Scotland
that means the end of the Barnett Formula and no safety net, when that goes the
cuts come in. Scotland
would be devastated and whoever is in charge would get the blame. The SNP aren’t
going to sign up and see their control of power slide away.

The biggest obstacle in the path of Kezia Dugdale’s plan is
that England
doesn’t want federalism. When John Prescott tried to push through Labour’s plan
for regional devolution in 2004 voters rejected a north east regional assembly
four-to-one.

Kezia Dugdale has painted herself in a corner trying to
promise something which no one wants either side of the border, that she can’t
deliver at all and to top it all what chance has she in convincing Jeremy
Corbyn who she failed to back as leader.

To show how unprepared she is to explain her flagship
policy, on BBC Sunday Politics, she struggled to explain how the
convention would deliver UK-wide federalism. She was also forced to concede it
was not UK Labour party policy to carve England
into devolved regions in order to arrive at a federal UK.

Kezia Dugdale has no mandate from the people of Scotland, she has no mandate from the people of England and she
has no mandate from the UK Labour Party, her flagship policy is going down in
flames because she isn’t listening to the people.

And the people have decided that their future isn’t served
by a Scottish Labour Party that isn’t listening.

Kezia Dugdale wrongly thought that £240 bribe on Child
benefit and a policy doomed to failure would revive her and her party’s
fortunes, she really does need to ‘up the ante’ or as it was recently said by
someone, the catastrophic failure to understand the changed nature of UK
politics has sealed Labour’s fate.

When you keep doing the same thing which ends in disaster, a
new course of action is required; Kezia Dugdale cannot keep losing and expect
to remain Scottish Labour leader. When her deputy Alex Rowley gave his closing speech
he failed to mention federalism or the convention, but the point I would like
you to focus in on is huge curtains were used to hide hundreds of empty seats
from view. Not only is Scottish Labour losing the voters, those who currently
run Scottish Labour don’t chime with their own membership.

Kezia Dugdale needs to step back from federalism and think
again with policies that would matter to people, one such policy; pledge to
campaign for total devolvement of the DWP to the Scottish Parliament.

It seems that Scotland’s unpopular First Minster
Nicola Sturgeon is looking incredibly creepy and old looking, just look at her
face, not the look of a dynamic leader but the look of a sick worn out
downtrodden sick woman.

When I see people like that my first thought is that their
insides are rotting away with some sort of disease or illness.

Nicola Sturgeon is looking like a ghoul!

The clock is ticking on who will be the new leader of the
SNP, so far Nicola Sturgeon as I have previously blogged has failed to stop
Brexit, and she has failed to deliver indyref2.

Apparently Sturgeon doesn’t want Nationalists calling a
second referendum indyref2 as it is a reminder that she failed to win the indyref
in September 2014.

‘Don’t call second referendum ‘indyref2’, Nicola Sturgeon
cries like a piece of flotsam being sucked down a plughole, if there is an
indyref2, Nicola Sturgeon will lost it.

Her continual threats to call a second referendum are as meaningful
as a ‘shout on a wet street’, despite the delusion that she can do anything,
the reality of Brexit is that she can do nothing. Scotland
along with the rest of the UK
will be leaving the European Union in due course.

To show how deluded Nicola Sturgeon is she said to a
gathering of the SNP Cult that ‘we have a different set of circumstances’, well
that isn’t true in my opinion. Brexit isn’t a reason for a new vote; it is also
not a mandate either.

An SNP source apparently said:

“She said this is a new referendum, we have a different set
of circumstances, different reasons for having one and it is a completely
separate matter.”

Scotland
is leaving the EU.

The SNP source added:

““She said a new referendum is specifically about the
democratic deficit and about being pulled out of the European Union against our
will. Brexit demonstrates most clearly that as a country we are not being heard
and the UK
is not a nation of equals.”

The premise is wrong, this was a UK
wide vote, Scotland
wasn’t voting as a country so the claim of democratic deficit is entirely
bogus, it is an SNP con trick which no one is buying especially the Westminster
Government down the road.

I like saying this so here it is again, this is the nub,
there is no mandate for a second independence referendum to be held in Scotland.

So imagine this scene; Nicola Sturgeon gets her tired old
carcass to a rostum to cry “freedom” and then Theresa May says No!

After a lot of squealing by Nicola Sturgeon, she is then
forced into an early election, let’s say the SNP win the largest number of
seats but don’t win an overall majority. Next with her ‘win’ she then goes back
to Theresa May to claim she has a mandate, May then says no overall majority,
the answer is No!

Sturgeon then ropes in the Scottish Green stooges as a plan
B, citing the ‘will of the parliament’, at that point it becomes interesting
because at point I suspect that Theresa May kicks the ball into the very long
grass. There will not be a referendum allowed to run while Brexit talks are
proceeding.

You might have noticed that Scotland
in Union has been cycling up their activity
level recently; I assume this is a backup plan in the event of a second
indyref2. Do, I see Better Together being reformed for a second indyref, I
doubt it, the operation on the ground was very unsuccessful due to the team
being filled with too many Labour staffers who had divided loyalties and use
the campaign to further their own careers.

Scottish Labour never really supported the Better Together
campaign properly which was a major mistake on their part. Although some people
had difficulties in getting stuff and top down decisions which were unworkable,
I never experienced that problem myself.

One day I popped into the HQ, to get hold of someone, were I
got the standard, ‘who are you’ comment from a secretary as she flipped through
papers. After a second I said, ‘I am George Laird and I want to see ….’ Next
second the woman jumped out of her chair like she was sitting on a tack and
said, ‘wait there I will go get him’. Terribly nice of her I thought, knowing that
others had faced a tougher time when they ventured in. Apparently my blog was
read by everyone down there which was nice of them, do as I was doing a
sterling service on the scribbling front and effectively co-ran the Pollok
Campaign which produced a great result despite not having the same amount of
volunteers as the opposition. I with a handful of happy campers got 22k votes,
the SNP with 30/40 people managed to get 27k votes.

Down the road, Theresa May has ordered her ministers to
go out and drive home the case for the Union. This
seems to run in parallel with the activities of Scotland
in Union. A Cabinet meeting discussed of the
need to “maintain, strengthen and nurture” the 300-year-old bond between the
nations of the UK.

The Conservative Government seems to think that this time
around a ‘Better Together 2’ can be led by them in a more front foot approach
as they set their eye on Holyrood, they may think that with Scottish Labour’s
decline, they can take the prize of Holyrood. Nicola Sturgeon losing again in
indyref 2, is a clear message that Scotland is saying No to her and
the SNP.

Finally, incase anyone thinks that Sturgeon is in charge, Ex-European
Council president Herman Van Rompuy suggested Brussels would find it harder to
stomach a vote for Scotland to breakaway from the rest of the UK if it hadn’t
been authorised by Westminster.

The last gasp of political life of Nicola Sturgeon is about
to be breathed out, if there is an indyref 2, the SNP cult will be jockeying
for position as she will have to resign, once she loses for a second time.

Trouble is a bit like grief, when it comes, it hurts; the
Scottish Labour Party is in deep trouble, although they give the public
appearance of being confident, they are on a continual downward spiral.

What does a party need to work?

It needs an understanding of what I have blogged on for
years, an understanding of the political economy.

So, what is the political economy, the economy is based on people,
money and resources. At present, the Scottish Labour Party is going in the
wrong direction, Kezia Dugdale for reasons best known to her has made a lot of
mistakes, and she keeps making a lot of mistakes.

Here are some of the big ones in no order of preference:

1/ Failed to back Jeremy Corbyn as leader in post

2/ Failed to support Jeremy Corbyn in his leadership bid

3/ Failed to remain neutral during the US Presidential
election

4/ Failed to support Brexit

5/ Failed to understand that Trident must be supported by Scottish Labour

You could go and do a list on the minor ones but you would
end up nitpicking.

Political Parties rise and fall, that is the nature of
politics, some organisations reach and end date, however, it generally isn’t
seen as helpful when the leadership is accelerating the process.

People like to be associated with success, and the Scottish
Labour Party was a success story in terms of holding onto power, now the
downward spiral has started, a lot of “Labour” people have quietly disappeared.

Ask yourself this, where are all the big names in Scottish
Labour who sat in the Parliaments of Westminster and Holyrood now?

They have gone; they aren’t out pounding the streets for a
Labour victory week in week out, they aren’t contributing to the party in a
meaningful sense; they aren’t in the press doing set pieces on issues of the
day.

Scottish Labour cannot survive on 15 minutes of FMQs and a
few set piece setups promoting various organisations at the Scottish
Parliament.

Scottish Labour is too Holyrood focussed as a party because
that is where the leadership sits.

Kezia Dugdale has made a huge load of mistakes, but mistakes
as we all know are part of the learning process, and the process also involves
not repeating mistakes, when you don’t learn, you suffer.

People have walked away from Scottish Labour; I saw this as
a Labour activist doing the Holyrood 2016 campaign. It was a surprise to me how
few people wanted to support the campaign of Johann Lamont which only picked up in the last week, how few days the
Councillors and former MP put into this seat. I thought the Scottish Labour
Party would have a slick operation for campaigning on the ground, they didn’t.

Who would have thought that Kezia Dugdale would lose the
position as official leader of the opposition?

I did, and I blogged on it.

Just as people have walked away from the party along with
me, so has the cash given to the Scottish Labour Party!

Investing in a collapsing market is never a good idea unless
you know the market is about to turn, in Scottish Labour’s case, there is no
green shoots revival in sight.

Latest poll is 14%, this means 86% of Scots aren’t willing
to back a Labour Party in Scotland
which is going under the direction of Kezia Dugdale’s policies. I am not surprised
that Scottish Labour donations collapse in Dugdale's first year as leader. She
has spent too much time relying on the 15 minutes of FMQs as a platform, it is
an ineffective media, most Scots don’t turn in, and it is for all intensive
purposes worthless.

Clearly Scottish Labour cannot continue to suffer
catastrophic drops in donations because the party needs to go through a
revival, not just of policies but equally of people. The Blair faction control Scottish
Labour, they are the gate keepers but with donations continuing to fall, some
of the staff and party officers need to be removed.

Last year, the lack of cash severely hampered their ability
to fight the Holyrood election; in Pollok, they spent a pitiful amount on
leaflets and I am not sure if they even had a budget for media, or even thought
of the idea.

This week is the party conference in Perth, I got a thing asking me to go but as I
am standing as an independent, I really couldn’t attend, could I?

Figures published show that Kezia Dugdale’s first full year
as leader was the party’s worst for donations since 2009.

In 2015, the party had donations of just under £600,000.

In 2016 it was just over £100,000

Scottish Labour ended 2016 with a deficit of £104,000, and
the bad news continues as the party’s reserves also slumped below £160,000,
their lowest level since 2003.

The numbers are bad, but what is equally bad is the denial
of where the blame lies, a Labour source stated:

"Donations to the party across the entire UK have dried
up since Jeremy Corbyn became leader. Scottish Labour is no different.
People are not donating while Jeremy is leader."

I don’t believe that Jeremy Corbyn is the reason for the
continual decline in donations to Scottish Labour, nor do I believe that the
rot started with him in Scotland.
Scottish Labour’s problems had festered for years as Jim Murphy aptly mentioned
when he took over as Leader in Scotland.

The real reason which Scottish Labour has to address, is
their failure to develop not just the organisation but the policies, but they
want to be autonomous and they effectively got their wish, we now see that they
are having ‘start up’ problems.

The party’s latest accounts, which cover the year to 31
December 2016, show that the party’s slide in the polls mirrors a massive
deterioration in its finances. It also makes it pretty clear that a sharp loss
of confidence among donors in the party in Scotland under Ms Dugdale and her
deputy Alex Rowley watch is really their fault.

If it wasn’t for the polling and sharing of resources by the
UK Party, then the situation would be even worse for Scottish Labour than it is
at present.

It is time that Scottish Labour started producing policies
at Conferences and have a rolling agenda for Government in waiting.

Do you know what Scottish Labour stands for?

No?

Join the club; you are in the same boat as the membership,
not just the rank and file, even senior people who have been candidates!

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said:

“Every Labour politician who is elected fights for working
people”.

That isn’t true, and by just trotting out this patronising
statement, they insult the intelligence of the people of Scotland which
is why they have been wiped out in the last two major elections.

Why did people vote to get rid of Scottish Labour?

Because they weren’t representing ordinary people, the
tipping point was reached, as one Labour report stated, there isn’t a core vote
anymore for the Labour Party.

Kezia Dugdale needs a narrative, not a series of short term
populist statements and not allowing the status quo to continue of people
failing to produce, she needs to get better activists, and she needs policies to
sell on the doorstep and not rhetoric. The Scottish Labour Party has traded off
the legacy of the political giants of the past whop created the welfare state
and the NHS, but these people are gone, and what replaced them aren’t Nye Bevan
or John Smith figures.

The race to be the next leader of the Scottish National
Party has unofficially just begun, you ask why, what happened?

Scotland’s unpopular First Minster Nicola Sturgeon failed to
stop Scotland from leaving the European Union!

Quick tally to get you synced in.

1/ Lost the Scottish independence referendum 2014

2/ Lost the Brexit referendum of 2016.

3/ Failed to stop Scotland from leaving the European Union!

The question is when will Nicola Sturgeon stand down, will
see go after the May Council elections?

The reason for speculation is that Scottish Secretary David
Mundell has stated point blank, that even a Yes vote cannot stop Scotland
leaving EU under Brexit.

It seems that everybody in the UK is coming out!

The threat of calling an early Holyrood election was threatened
by the Nationalists as a date in 2018 was floated by people like Alex Salmond,
but the political landscape of Scotland has moved past the SNP.

The SNP is yesterday’s party; it is a party without a
future, without a real leader and without a purpose.

When Mundell said that Scotland will be taken out of Europe
by Brexit even if there is a vote for independence, he was saying
anything new, but the timing of his announcement and the language used is significant.

The SNP have fought two referendums and on each occasion,
they have lost! They have lost because they don’t understand or have the ability
to cope with ‘direct democracy’ or if you prefer, ‘will of the people’.

A possible future contender for leadership after an interim
leader to steady the SNP ship is probably Alex Salmond. Earlier this month,
Salmond claimed there could be a referendum in 2018 to ensure “continuing
uninterrupted membership of the European Economic Area”. Although Salmond gets
a lot wrong, this time…. He is still wrong!

There will be no “continuing uninterrupted membership” of
anything, in fact you can see a situation where Westminster looking at the EU
offer simply turns round and says WTO to them and walks off.

WTO is World Trade Organisation.

As things are starting to move fast, it is clear that the Nicola
Sturgeon and the SNP are not part of the process, they are completely irrelevant.

Mundell is to say in his opening statement to Holyrood’s
European committee about Brexit:

“I think it is important to be clear because there has been
a lot of public debate on this point - that Scotland will not be in
the EU at the end of this process. There is no set of circumstances in which
Scotland could remain a member of the EU after the rest of the UK has left. If
Scotland's constitutional position were ever to change, it would have to apply
to be a member of the EU afresh - and we should not make easy assumptions about
the length of time this would take, the process Scotland would have to follow
or the terms of membership that may be on offer.”

If independent, Scotland would be at the back of the EU as a
new State, there would be no the UK opt-outs, no opt-out on the euro and it
would see an end to the rebate which came to Scotland as part of the UK.

The recent nonsense by two leading academics had said an
independent Scotland could be fast-tracked into the EU; potentially by 2023 is
in my opinion fantasy politics. It kind of looks like two Pro EU friendly
academics has been engaged in ‘day dreaming’.

Scottish Tory MEP Ian Duncan said the pair had relied on a
series of generous assumptions about EU reactions. Like the SNP, they have
assumed that Scotland would get a great deal when there is no real evidence to
support this.

Ukip MEP David Coburn pitched in and said it would be
“catastrophic” if Scotland had to accept the euro. On that score, he is right.
The Euro would break Scotland much in the same way that it has destroyed
Greece.

He said:

“This would present insurmountable difficulties as
Scotland’s national debt is approximately £15bn thanks to the SNP, which is
higher than that of Greece. Scotland would have to suffer a greater austerity
than Greece. Mad Sturgeonomics.”

If you like a flutter then you might want to see about
getting a bet down on who the next leader of the Scottish National Party is,
the only undeclared ‘runner’ is Alex Salmond, perhaps SNP MP Tommy Sheppard
might throw his hat into the ring.

The countdown to the end of Nicola Sturgeon in my opinion
has started, the clock is counting down, when is she saying she is going to go?

Scotland’s
unpopular SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has certainly racked up a huge massive
problem as people are dubbing her business rates grab the ‘new poll tax’ in Scotland.

The SNP are making Scotland
the highest taxed part of the United
Kingdom and it isn’t just ordinary people
they want to tax the hell out of, it is businesses as well.

The tax grab can has only one purpose in my opinion, to
attempt to fill the hole created in Scottish finances circa £15 billion. It
goes without saying that a ‘tax grab’ only gets the Nationalists part of the
way there, the other side of the coin is attracting business to Scotland.

Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond admits business rate
rise ‘a genuine concern’ because the rises in business rates are quite frankly
in some cases ridiculous in nature. Having seen Salmond break ranks, one has to
ask has Alex Salmond just fired the first shot in a bid to regain the
leadership of the Scottish National Party.

Nicola Sturgeon isn’t just seen as a bad leader outside the
SNP, she is also seen as a bad leader inside the SNP as well, some people aren’t
happy with her performances and her failure to deliver.

What does it say about Nicola Sturgeon’s credibility as Alex
Salmond, admitted some Scottish businesses have a “very legitimate” case
against business rate rises? Is he trying to head off wide spread anger which
could see many small businesses claiming they could go out of business altogether
as a result of crippling increases in the levy.

This is no joke; this measure is on a par with the ill fated
poll tax which was to become widespread in its popularity and hatred of the
then Conservatives Government.

Salmond said:

“In the north-east there’s a very legitimate case because
the date the independent evaluation officers made their valuations was at a
time when, a couple of years ago, the economy was much stronger than now. That’s
why I welcome Aberdeenshire Council’s initiative to put £3 million into
additional rates relief to try and take some of the edge off for the hardest
cases.”

Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said:

“Alex Salmond says there is a legitimate case for
action. If Derek Mackay won’t listen to thousands of affected firms, perhaps he
will listen to his former boss.”

The way things are looking will Nicola Sturgeon do a U turn,
will she be pressured into surrendering to calls and then see her moral
authority of leadership disappear or will she chart the same course and see disaster
befall her down the line.

Trouble now or trouble later!

In order to attempt to distance themselves from their
actions, the SNP have been quick to use the theme that the rates revaluation was
carried out by independent assessors, but the decision to implement was a
political decision by the SNP.

The current line by the SNP is that they aren’t for turning,
and trying to give the impression that Salmond is onboard and a signed up
member of the ‘sheep’, but looking at his comments, is he?

To add to the outcry of foul, a leading nationalist
hotelier has said the business rates backlash will be as fierce as against the
Poll Tax and bring down the SNP in government.

Sandy Fraser, owner of the Oak Tree Inn on the banks of Loch Lomond, said:

“This will be like Margaret Thatcher’s Poll tax and could
bring down the Government. I am a Nationalist at heart so I am very
disappointed. My vote will depend on how we are treated over the next few weeks”.

It seems to me reading this that Nicola Sturgeon has lost
another voter!

Fraser added:

“For somebody that has always voted SNP I am bitterly
disappointed that we are in this position. Our rates are proposed to go up by
over 100 per cent from around £60,000 to £140,000, which is staggering. We’re
the biggest employer on the east side of Loch Lomond,
employing between 60 to 85 people”.

Over 100% rise, that would be crippling to any small of
medium size business, in the old days, John Swinney was seen as the financial
guru figure in the SNP, once Sturgeon took over, he was shipped out as Nicola
Sturgeon brought in her ‘B’ Team, ever since the change the direction of
Government has gone backwards noticeably.

Fraser concluded:

“We will have to lay people off and cancel people that we
usually have coming in from Lithuania
and Poland
in the busy season. It’s complete madness. Why continue to hammer tourism,
which is the only success story that Scotland has got as far as I’m
concerned. If the Scottish Government were minded to take an interest they
would be speaking to us. They’re killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

Fundamental, Sandy Fraser doesn’t understand the SNP, they
aren’t able to look at the big picture, it isn’t a feature of their politics,
never has been, the evidence?

Constant whingeing and uber grievances with Westminster; coupled with
the total inability to get on with people or organisations.

Can you imagine the SNP starting a second Scottish independence
bid with their business ‘poll tax’ hanging round their neck like an albatross?

With uncertainty flying about the place about the call for a
referendum in 2018, which is possibly smack in the middle of the Brexit talks,
you have to wonder why Westminster would grant a Section 30 order for a new
vote.

The buzzards maybe circling but perhaps their meal with
Kentucky Fried Sturgeon as ‘King Alex’ moves from his London Court to Scotland in the
wake of Nicola Sturgeon failing to deliver indyref 2!

The slippery slope to disaster has already started for
Nicola Sturgeon.

The first part is the Daily Record story about me, if you wonder how
the press got hold of that story, let me set your mind to rest; I walked in and
gave it to them.

Hardly the actions of someone homophobic don’t you think?

After I filed complaints about an alleged smear campaign
with the SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell against me, which he ignored, I then
found myself facing a complaint by the then National Secretary William
Henderson.Henderson
as well as being the complainer was also involved in running the hearing against
me and speaking to the ‘judges’ outside the process.

Never believe that the Scottish National Party are the party of equality, fairness and social justice, never believe it is run by kind exceptional people, Nicola Sturgeon and her husband, Peter Murrell are scum.

After I outed this piece of shit William Henderson in the press, he “disappeared”
as National Secretary to be replaced by Patrick Grady who is now an MP. It became clear to me fairly quickly I was being cheated out of a fair hearing so I walked away from
the SNP.

Here is a letter which I highlight the double standards during the
process.

One of the key parts of that letter for me was pointing out
the double standards between people who are rich and people like me who are
poor working class. Read the whole thing but read this bit to show you what I
mean.

“SNP MP Dr. Whiteford claimed she was threatened at Westminster and received
the backing of the First Minister Alex Salmond and the SNP within hours of
making an unsubstantiated complaint with no witnesses and George Laird after 8
months is still waiting for SNP ‘justice’”.

Whiteford gets help immediately within a few hours and I get
none in 8 months, after I contacted the senior SNP leadership.

The second part of the tweet is my post which contains my
rather catchy election video, I am standing for Councillor in the 2017 Glasgow
City Council Elections, so that lets you know that this tweet is designed to
send a message, don’t vote for George Laird because he is homophobic.

If you
read the 2012 post in full, then take the time to read the 2015 post, what do you see?

Names that appear in one post appear in another, with an
added addition of one of them getting a criminal conviction.

The third part of the tweet is a WTF moment; it has nothing
to do with me, why that appears is a mystery but perhaps it was added in for general ‘effect’.

If I was homophobic, I would have no problem saying it
openly because I wouldn't give a toss who knew.

I am signed up to change.org
where I get petitions on all manner of things which are an injustice; some of
the campaigns I am asked to support are LGBT campaigns. I found some time ago
that change.org keeps a record of which campaigns I have supported in the past,
right from the start when I first joined it.

Some of those campaigns concern LGBT people were an
injustice occurred, again, is this the actions of a homophobe?

Several LGBT politicians such as Ruth Davidson and Annie
Well follow me on Twitter, would they if they thought I was a homophobe?

At the Jo Cox vigil in Glasgow, one of the few people I spoke to on the night was Annie Wells of the LGBT community, is this the actions of a homophobe?

I also follow Milo Yiannopoulos on youtube, the LGBT activist and
presenter, LGBT presenter David Rubin of the Rubin Report, again the actions of
a homophobe?

It seems the smearing season is starting early this year
before the official gun has been fired in the Glasgow City Council election, against
me by the Nationalist community.

They say that if there is a second Scottish independence
referendum it will be a thoroughly nasty affair, it seems that the Nationalists
are using the 2017 Council Elections as a ‘warm up’.

The idea of a poor working class guy like me getting elected
so angers the rich middle class Nationalists that they would stop at nothing to smear me.

Finally, to those in the SNP like Nicola Sturgeon who maybe deeply upset about a commentator like me standing for public office, I am reminded of the words by Milo Yiannopoulos:

There have been some great Speakers of the House of Commons
in the past, the most outstanding person to hold the chair was Betty Boothroyd,
now Baroness Boothroyd. Betty Boothroyd served as a Labour MP from 1973 to
1992. From 1992 to 2000, she served with distinction as Speaker of the
House of Commons. She was the first, and to date only, the female Speaker of
the House of Commons.

A full list of Speakers of the House of Commons can be found
on wiki, but for easy, here is the link.

Another great Speaker of the House was The Right Honourable Edward
Algernon FitzRoy who served the House during the War years of WW2, he was
present when Anthony Edan gave his speech in 1942 on the Holocaust.

Fast forward to present day, we have John Bercow, he was
formerly a Conservative MP before becoming the Speaker. As the Labour Party
were in their death throes in 2010, they decided to annoy the Conservatives by
backing John Bercow as Speaker, this led to the Speaker facing angry
Conservatives on the backbenches running little better than a hate campaign
against him. David Cameron, the then Prime Minister at the time far from
stamping this out allowed it to continue with sanction.

However, it wasn’t always an uphill struggle and here is a
clip, I would like you to watch.

David Cameron is now gone, but the anti Bercow brigade in
the Conservative ranks still have a ‘score’ to settle, they may feel they have
a grievance but their conduct is bring the reputation of the House of Commons
and politicising the Chair in a really disastrous way.

The Chair of the House of Commons must be neutral, seen to
be neutral and respected by MPs inside and outside the Commons. When Michael
Martin was Chair of the House, he allowed his tenure to be tainted by the
expenses scandal and eventually was forced out by the Tories. Bercow was the
Labour Party’s revenge on the actions of the Tories.

It appears that a Conservative MP James Duddridge, has
tabled a "no confidence" motion in the Speaker. Duddridge has a point
when he says that it is not for the Speaker to decide who comes to speak to
Parliament, this latest incident flared up as Bercow said that President Donald
Trump shouldn’t be allowed to speak in Parliament.

Was Bercow in the wrong to make his Trump comments, as an
individual, I would say no, but as the Speaker, it was inappropriate to do so.
If there is a witch hunt against Bercow, he just gave them a gift. Just before the
last election, William Hague tried to force out John Bercow, it was a dirty
trick on his way out of Parliament and entirely unworthy of him.

If you never have felt sorry for Bercow before, then view these
clips.

Conservative MP Charles Walker’s comment that he would
rather be an honourable fool than a clever man was aimed directly at William
Hague.

I don’t agree with John Bercow saying that he would bar Donald
Trump from addressing Parliament during his planned state visit
to the UK.

I also don’t agree with he should have publicly proclaimed
himself a ‘remain voter’ in last year’s EU referendum.

The Speaker of the House of Commons must remain neutral, John
Bercow has allowed his judgement to be clouded by events, given what has
happened and what he has been subjected to this is understandable but not
right. When Theresa May assumed the role of Prime Minister, she should have
held a private meeting to stamp out the group that feel they are justified in
running an open sore in Parliament. This isn’t good for democracy and it isn’t
good for the Commons.

Should May and her Cabinet support John Bercow?

This is entirely a matter for their conscience, but I think
they should, the wider picture is more important than what is increasingly
looking like a petty witch hunt.

Duddridge told BBC Radio 5 Live's Emma Barnett:

"Put it this way, I don't know any Cabinet ministers
that aren't supporting me. I think some
people may abstain. I would expect the Prime Minister to abstain. I had
expected David Lidington to abstain given that he's a parliamentary neighbour
and kind of chief interlocutor with John Bercow as leader of the Commons. But
he was quite robust at the weekend about not offering John Bercow his support. I
don't think there will be a single member of the Cabinet that will support John
Bercow. I've not spoken to every single one but I've spoken to a number of
Cabinet ministers, ministers, private secretaries, backbenchers and people from
all over the party."

Downing Street position
is that they have no position on John Bercow's future, as they kick the ball
into the long grass to say that this is a "matter for MPs".

I don’t support Conservative MP James Duddridge who has
tabled a "no confidence" motion in the Speaker; I think that Bercow’s
Trump comments were unfortunate considering who else has been invited to
Parliament.

I suppose the question is do we want to go through the same unedifying
spectacle that we all witnessed in 2015 in the House of Commons? If we do that means a pattern has developed
that if a group dislike the Speaker then they are fair game to be picked on and
forced out.

Denial is what Scottish Labour has been going through more
or less non stop since 2007, if you know what taking the huff is, then just scale it up to get the picture what the Scottish Labour Party is going through.

Here are a few videos to get you a feel of what I am trying
to put across.

The 2007 election came and went, and saw the SNP installed as
a minority government.

The next thing which was to happen was denial; Scottish
Labour sat for four years at Holyrood and did nothing constructive. That wasn’t
the start of the rot for the Labour Party; there had been a decade of
dissatisfaction which had been growing with the public.

In Glasgow,
the Labour Party rammed up council tax year on year, people paid more and
services didn’t improve. When
the SNP offered a five year freeze, they pulled the rug right out from Labour
who if I remember rightly came up with a two year freeze.

The real problem lying under the surface which festered like
an open sore was Labour politicians who were effectively refusing to help
people, ignoring people and in some cases enacting policies which were detrimental,
usually to those at the bottom of society.

Scottish Labour were effectively killing off their own core
support, and actively giving them reasons to find another party. Since Scottish
Labour wouldn’t do what was required, the public were slowly draining away
towards the party of protest which is the SNP.

The 2011 election in Scotland was to produce an
extraordinary event, a majority SNP Government, something which the electoral
system wasn’t supposed to produce, but in this case, it did. After four years
of being entirely meaningless in Scottish politics, the Labour Party was
crushed again; however, it still managed to hold the position of official
opposition.

The rot was spreading, although in 2012, Labour did manage
to hold Glasgow, this wasn’t due to skill, it was done to the SNP being an
ineffective opposition led by the Sturgeon crony Allison Hunter who was
incapable as a leader. It may have seemed like green shoots of recovery but in
reality the Labour Party hadn’t reached the tipping point just yet.

The tipping point was to come in 2014, after being letdown
again and again and again, the ordinary people of Scotland mostly at the lower end of
society had been disenfranchised by the Westminster Government, the system was
broken and it was to become much worse.

Working class people stripped of dignity felt they had
nothing to lose, the system had failed them and they wanted change. Punished by
Westminster regardless whether it was Labour or
Conservative Governments; it made no difference or sense to them to be part of
the Union.

It was Labour who introduced the Bedroom tax, it was Labour
who introduced the ATOS scandal which was to dominate a social justice agenda,
while Labour MPs enjoyed high wages and expenses, the poor were abused.

The Conservatives maybe running with the torch, but the
flame and the journey was started by the Labour Party.

2014 was the awakening that the Scottish Labour Party
representatives could be voted out, and people right across Scotland did so in
their thousands, post 2014, the next election was Westminster, the result was
extraordinary, the worst election result for Scottish Labour in 100 years. All
Labour MPs bar one were voted out of public office, the good swept away by the
actions of the bad.

2016, the Scottish Labour Party defeated the year before
faced an angry Scottish public yet again, a public not willing to listen to a
party who had stopped listening decades ago. The result, the Scottish Labour
Party loses yet again and becomes the third party of Holyrood.

Scottish Labour was dying; but the people running it wouldn’t
face the truth, their policies and their people weren’t wanted.

We are now in 2017, far from improving the same mindset of
failure continues to dominate the leadership’s thinking, for them it isn’t what
the people want, it isn’t what they can do for the people or Scotland; it is
about them following their agenda.

Scottish Labour hasn’t accepted the message that the public
aren’t coming back because the people running the Scottish Labour Party aren’t
wanted, and no new shiny policy or gimmick fixes that problem.

It seems that Scottish Labour is set for heavy defeat in
Scottish council elections according to a new poll, so to cut to the chase, the
number is 14%.

14% of Scots are saying that they will vote for the Labour
Party, the party’s internal polling some months ago painted a black picture of
15%, since then the decline continues, the wider picture is that support for
Scottish Labour has more than halved since the last local government elections
in 2012.

A Panelbase poll of 1,028 voters found;

Scottish Labour 14%

SNP 47%,

Scottish Conservatives 26%,

Liberal Democrats 5%,

Scottish Greens 4%

Ukip 3%.

A Labour spokesman said:

“In May, voters across Scotland face a choice between
electing Labour candidates who will stand against SNP cuts to local services
and will oppose a second independence referendum, or SNP candidates who will
seek to divide communities. Labour believes that together we’re stronger.”

Voters face a bigger choice than just choosing between
Labour and the SNP; however the Scottish Labour Party spokesman tries to paint
a choice which is effectively narrow. This election has given the people of Scotland
the opportunity to have a rainbow of political representation.

I don’t like the spin of what is said above for several
reasons, it isn’t a choice between Labour and SNP for a start, and secondly to
finish off his pitch, he is using the tag, “together we’re stronger”, this
signifies that he is only repeating what he is told to say, this isn’t an
interaction it is a proclamation, he isn’t talking ‘to the people’, he is
talking ‘at the people’.

If there is a mass slaughter of Scottish Labour Councillors
at the ballot box in May, then the Labour spokesman may find himself out of a
job as money from Councillors helps to fund Labour Party staff.

I said last year at the time of the 15% internal Labour
Party polling that Scottish Labour had further to fall, George Laird right
again!

Finally, I found this picture above, 'I'm voting No'!, ironically I thought it would give the readership a laugh because given the dysfunctional way the Scottish Labour Party operate, I expect a huge number of Scots have already decided to vote no anyway to Scottish Labour.

Greece
has been badly letdown by the EU, treated like dirt, had to sell off assets and
had to beg for loans to keep the country afloat.

When I first read of Greek pensioners who had to look in
bins for food, it shocked me, is this ‘the dream’ of a united Europe
which we were all supposed to be signed up to? Can you imagine it, people having
to look for food in bins in this day and age. The Greeks as I mentioned in
previous posts, need to leave the Euro and a case for leaving the EU can also
be strongly made. Greek politicians have made all kinds of threats to the EU
but at the last minute they did a deal.

Sometimes, it is better to walk away from a bad situation
than let it fester, and Greece
has festered for years when the road to recovery was blocked by intransigent
politicians,

In an ideal world, Greece would drop the Euro,
re-instate the Drachma, and hold a referendum to leave the EU, reset their
democracy and institutions and start again. Greece's
spiralling financial crisis has led to EU bosses threatening expulsion but Greece must
show initiative and make the choice to go as a people.

Greece
if it so chooses could setup their own currency, the Drachma but in a strange
twist, the Greeks are floating an idea to ditch the Euro in favour of US dollar,
whether this is another Greek ploy is open to speculation. If they did adopt
the dollar, it would be highly unusual to say the least, but the move would
send shock waves through the EU right to the heart of Germany and
Angela Merkel.

It seems that the current EU project isn’t sustainable or
indeed wanted by some Member States anymore. France,
Italy and the Netherlands all seem candidates who could along
with Greece
decide to call it a day.

Greece's
desperately needs an alternative to the Eurozone!

Now, is that alternative a new zone, a North Atlantic Trade Zone
with America, Canada, UK,
Netherlands and perhaps Greece combining
to rival the EU?

If you are the type of person who thinks ‘things just happen’
then let me tell you they don’t, David Cameron was involved this idea long
before Brexit and before the Scottish independence referendum.

A battle fought over Brexit might in the future be a battle
fought over the a new trade zone covering the North Atlantic if the mistakes of
the EU were repeated such as trying to force TTIP down people’s throats to
attempt to destroy our NHS.

The Greek tragedy looks set to continue, and a decision has
to be made, to default on the EU, the short term pain maybe in the Greek
national interest, Athens
faces debt repayments of 7.0 billion euros ($7.44 billion) this summer that it
cannot afford. If you get a loan and then you have to pay off charges, you have
to wonder what the point is in the first place as money is siphoned off to pay
back bankers.

At present the talk of dollarisation is limited to think
tanks, whether it gets beyond that is another matter. We had the uncaring EU
political elite who ignored the best interests of the people which are leading
to political change right across Europe, the question of how a possible North
Atlantic Trade Block would operate is of some concern, never again can UK sovereignty be lost in trade agreements which
work against the UK
national interest.

The Conservatives took us into what was to become the EU as
we know it in 1973; we have to wonder will it be the Conservatives who would be
taking us into a possible North Atlantic Trade Block, and if that doesn’t pan
out, then who takes on the challenge to get us out of that?

The rise of the far right has shocked some people who asked
themselves how this could have happened in today’s society; it happened because
the political elite of Europe became detached
from the rest of society. The political elite live in a political bubble surrounded
by wealth, they have been practising social engineering without the consent of
the population.

The experiment was tried in Great Britain and the people were
lied to, they were told that the influx of people was for economic reasons,
years later the Labour Party was forced to admit it had lied to the people and
that they were conducting a social engineering experiment under Tony Blair.

When faced with stories like those above, and similar events
on the continent of Europe, it was only a
matter of time before there was a backlash.

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders is an extremely high
profile Dutch politician who has attracted a lot of attention over the years
but his profile maybe about to get higher if he ends up leading his country.
Wilders is the founder of Holland's Party of
Freedom, he like Marine Le Pen in France is seeing a sea change in
public opinion towards their views. They are closer to real power than at
anytime of their careers.

The election of Donald Trump, the British making a choice
for Brexit has empowered these people to want to chart a Europe going in a
different direction, the EU used as a tool of oppression of countries
sovereignty is on a downward slope, many countries could end up leaving just as
Britain has chosen to do. I think that the EU had merit, but it has changed for
the worse and is now a threat to national security, why does a political organisation
need control of an army?

There can be only one use, the suppression of people in
member states under the guise of national emergency caused by civil unrest, the
get out to allow the political elite to bring in an army to enact military law.

The migrant crisis is an ongoing crisis, things are not
getting better; they are only getting worse; it is a matter for all EU States
that the removal of Angela Merkel as leader of Germany must be a top priority
along with disbandment of the EU as it presently operates.

I have written a number of articles on the blog about how Europe is heading towards possible ‘civil war’, the seeds
have been planted and the chaos we have seen in other countries is growing.

If Geert Wilders gets to be leader of his country, he promises
to 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands
and ban the Quran. Immigration is touchy subject, Wilders maybe of the opinion
that he needs total control of immigration which also means that the Dutch have
a referendum and vote to leave the EU. As to his ban the Quran, religious
freedom is something which is generally universally accepted as a good thing,
if he goes ahead with 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands,
you have to conclude that means deportation for Muslims not born in the Netherlands. If
that was to happen it would see a mini event similar to what happened after WW2,
people on the move either to other European countries or sent back to their
home country in the Middle East of elsewhere.

Such a scheme would spark a huge international outcry.

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been quite spoken
recent, in a rare television interview, he has mosques to Nazi temples and the Quran
to Mein Kampf. Another of his views is that Europe is going to enter what he
describes as a 'patriotic spring' which I take to mean is similar to an ‘Arab
Spring’, a people’s uprising against tyranny and rulers who ignored the welfare
of the people.

The change which could ignite a people’s uprising in Europe, needs some ducks to line up in a row, Geert
Wilders needs his far-right party get more than 30 parliamentary seats in next
month's election. Opposition parties say they will not work for him but his opinion
is that their views will change.

One wonders what type of Europe we will see in 10 years time,
considering that the goal of Islamic terrorists is to bring their war to the
streets of Europe.